


Time Spent Sleeping

by KaytiKazoo



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, First Kiss, Memories, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:01:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26277583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaytiKazoo/pseuds/KaytiKazoo
Summary: Fitz, trapped in some other place, is reminiscing about his soulmates, and tries to remember how he got here.
Relationships: Leo Fitz/Bobbi Morse, Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons, Leo Fitz/Lance Hunter, Leo Fitz/Lance Hunter/Bobbi Morse/Jemma Simmons
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	1. Jemma

Fitz was stuck rattling around in his own head, alone and unable to escape. He couldn’t remember how he got there or even where he was. He was in a cell of unknown make or design, isolated and afraid. The last thing he remembered was, was,  _ Hunter,  _ his kind eyes, his loving smile, the way he touched the glass and told Fitz he loved him. Why was he leaving where Hunter couldn’t follow? Where was he going?

To pass the time, he dwelled in his memories, in the loving, in the happiness, in the softness of his partners, trying to remember why he was leaving, where he was going. 

* * *

It all started with Jemma. He remembered meeting Jemma Simmons for the first time, and what it felt like to fall in love with her. Being around her was like breathing, easy and infinite. She’d always challenged him, made him want to be better, work harder, learn everything he could. They’d been so shy around each other, awkward and fumbling, but somehow, they’d built a friendship out of their similarities and wound their differences in between to keep them tight. 

He remembered the first time that he kissed her. 

“Honestly,” she said, rolling her eyes, standing outside of the lecture hall at the Academy. “It’s like they’ve never studied dielectric polarization before.”

Fitz laughed, dipping his head and looking up at her. She tilted her head at him in confusion.

“What?”

“This might be too forward, we still barely know each other, but would you mind if I tried something?”

“Depends on what that is,” she said.

“I’d like to kiss you, Jemma,” he replied, screwing up all his courage to get the question out instead of letting it simmer inside him. Her eyebrows shot up. 

“Are you sure?”

He nodded.

“I have a feeling, and I’m not sure I have the words for it, but I just – I have a hypothesis that I’d like to try.”

She studied him for a moment, and then nodded.

Awkward and seventeen, he stepped closer to her, and reached out, hands shaking. He held her jaw gently, stroked his thumb up and down her jaw for a moment, before he closed the final gap and kissed her. 

Fitz hadn’t believed “soulmates” as a phenomenon existed until he’d pipped with Jemma. He’d just wanted to kiss her, curious as to what her lips tasted like, what her breath against his face would feel like, what her sigh might sound like that close up. He’d just wanted to kiss her, to find out what that could be like. There was a forever feeling in his chest, but he hadn’t thought, hadn’t dared to believe that Jemma Simmons was his soulmate. 

They’d broken apart slowly, lingering in each other’s exhales, and when he finally opened his eyes, she was staring up at him. And Fitz could see the galaxy sparkle in Jemma's eyes that had been reported over and over with each growing occurrence. 

“Holy shit,” Fitz said, unable to stop his mouth. “ _ Holy shit _ .”

“We’re,” Jemma started to say, but couldn’t finish it.

“Yeah.”

“That’s, okay,” she said, nodding. “Okay. I’m going to kiss you again, if that’s okay.”

It was more than okay. 

They didn’t tell anyone, though, too afraid of backlash or ridicule, except their parents. Margaret and Thomas Simmons were nice, but intimidating, but they’d welcomed Fitz to their family. Fiona Fitz had cried, glad that her son had made not just a good friend, but someone who would be there with him for his life. No one else knew. 

When the nights were too cold, or the days too long, they could lock eyes and see those galaxy swirls that no one else could see and feel safe together. He loved Jemma Simmons; soulmates or no, he would be at her side as long as she would have him. But he was still glad that, in all of the big wide universe, fate had chosen Jemma Simmons to be by his side, and him to be at hers.

He remembered the day that they moved in together after the Academy. They were halfway to becoming full SHIELD agents, moving onto at  SciOps , and adults. He still felt like a kid, but apparently, he was an adult. Despite that, it was so easy to fall into the easiest rhythm together. The day they moved in together, they took a break and they stood in the middle of their apartment in between  trips, Simmons tucked under his chin.

“This is all I’ve ever wanted,” she said. 

“Me too,” he agreed. “I’ll stay like this forever.”

They grew into a life there, spending the week in the lab together and coming home to make dinner side by side, Friday nights with take out, Saturdays spent exploring the local area, Sundays doing laundry and cleaning the apartment. It was a good life. Fitz was happy.

Jemma, though, was restless. Phil Coulson asked them to join his team in the field, and Jemma wanted to go, so they went. They didn’t tell anyone about their bond, but somehow, Skye knew anyway.

“So, you and Jemma,” she said to him in the lab one afternoon while Jemma was somewhere else. Fitz looked up from where he was working on the Night  Night Gun. “You’re together, yeah?”

“We are,” he agreed.

“And are you,” she said and paused, “ _ together  _ together ?”

“I don’t know any other together we could be?”

“Like, are you universally-recognized together?”

“Skye, are you asking if Jemma’s my soulmate?”

“I mean, I didn’t say it.”

“Yes, she is,” he replied, and she grinned at him, clearly pleased with herself.

“Good! Because you two are  _ so cute _ .”

He remembered laying in his bunk, so much smaller than their apartment back home, with Jemma tucked into his side.

He remembered wishing that the next day she would make it back to this bunk with him, and every night after. They had too many close calls. He also lost her too many times, but they made it back to each other every time. 

When Ward betrayed them, and dropped them into the ocean, he couldn’t imagine a life where Jemma Simmons didn’t live. Those galaxies sparkled at him, and he pressed the button, exploding the glass. 

He remembered waking up with Jemma at his side, and he was so glad for it, even if he couldn’t find the words to say it. Things were different.  _ He _ was different. But he still had her.

* * *

If he always had her, why wasn’t she there?

He remembered Hunter. He remembered the Lighthouse. The prison. The kisses fervent in the back of the van, stripping Hunter of his clothes, desperate for each other after so long apart. Where was Jemma? She had been so important to his life. Where was Jemma? 


	2. Lance

Lance Hunter. Kind eyes. Soft lips. 

“I love you.”

“I know.”

Where was Fitz going? Why wasn’t Lance going with him? What was more important than being with him? Being with Hunter after so long, months alone. The first time they kissed, in that van, finally free. Hunter’s lips. 

“I love you.”

“I know.”

He should have said I love you, too.

* * *

He remembered meeting Lance Hunter for the first time, too, and absolutely panicking because he was gorgeous, and funny, and sparked that same forever feeling in Fitz’s chest that Jemma had for over a decade. Except he wasn’t Jemma.

Fitz was broken, but Hunter didn’t know that. Hunter stuck out his hand, smiled at him, and said, “it’s nice to meet you, Fitz.” He hadn’t mentioned it when Fitz’s hand had tremored against his. Fitz was broken, and maybe Hunter did know, but he didn’t know any other Fitz. He knew this version of him, and Hunter flirted with this version of him.

“It’s nice to m-m-meet you,” Fitz managed to get out, and Hunter grinned at him. There was something intrigued and curious in his expression, and Fitz wanted to let Hunter in to know more. 

It was bizarre, but quickly, Fitz couldn’t imagine what life was like without Hunter there.

He remembered the first mission they’d gone on as a team, Hunter and Fitz split off to do some recon at a company party and monitor one of the big wigs who had ties with Hydra. They’d slicked Fitz’s hair back and put him in a three-piece suit, and Hunter stood a step behind him acting as a bodyguard. It felt weird, but being around Hunter was electricity in his veins. 

“Sir,” Hunter said, opening doors for him and standing tantalizingly close. It sent a thrill through Fitz every time, and he had to school his expression so the whole world couldn’t tell there was a steady thrum of arousal coursing through him.

“Do you trust me?” Hunter asked, leaning in close to whisper into Fitz’s ear.

“Of course,” Fitz answered. “Why?”

“Someone’s getting suspicious of us,” Hunter explained and his hand appeared at Fitz’s waist. “If you’ll come with me, sir.”

Fitz let himself be guided from the main room into a smaller, darker office.

“Okay, love, this is the part where you trust me.”

He almost asked if they were going to be jumping out the window or something similarly ridiculous but before he could form the sentence , Hunter was kissing him. Hunter’s tongue slipped into his mouth as he gasped into it , and Hunter moved him to the nearest surface, a cabinet with a little ledge for Fitz to sit on. He had to grip  the front of Hunter’s own pressed suit to keep from shaking apart. It felt like the world started and stopped with Hunter’s mouth. 

The door opened, but Hunter didn’t stop, only pressed him against the cabinet harder, his body pressed along Fitz’s so he could feel all of Hunter’s warmth against him.

“Oh,” their tail said. Neither of them stopped to look, too busy with enjoying Fitz pressed into the cabinet against the wall, enjoying Hunter’s thigh slotted between his own, enjoying how  _ good _ it felt to be this close. The door closed a moment later without another word, and even though the suspicion had passed, Hunter kept kissing him. 

“Wait,” Fitz muttered, and Hunter backed away immediately. He wanted to chase his mouth, but stayed still because he had so many questions. When Fitz looked up, though, those starry galaxy sparkles he’d come to know so well in Simmons’ big brown eyes were staring back at him from Hunter’s eyes. “Holy shit.”

“ _ Holy shit _ ,” he echoed. “ Wait. No. That’s not possible. You have a soulmate, and I, I have a soulmate. ”

“It is possible ,” Fitz said, wanting to reach out and touch Hunter, but kept his hand to himself, “it’s just very rare. Simmons wrote one of her theses on the soulmate phenomena and the biological aspect of it. So, you know. ”

Hunter smiled gently at him, and touched Fitz’s lapel, smoothing it out.

“Can I kiss you again?” Hunter asked, and even though Jemma was in this office somewhere digging through records, Fitz nodded just to get Hunter’s mouth back on him. Kissing Hunter was easy, bright and warm, his hands curiously running along Fitz's sides.

“What happens now?” Fitz asked when Hunter adjusted his suit jacket again.

“I don’t know, love,” Hunter said. “Whatever you want.”

He remember sitting down at the breakfast bar with Simmons at the base, nervous as he worked up the courage to tell her that he’d technically cheated on her when Hunter had asked to kiss him again, and also the small detail that he’d  pipped with Hunter at the same time.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

“I pipped with Hunter,” he blurted, unable to keep it inside any longer. There was a moment of quiet as she processed this information, her eyebrows furrowed in thought.

“Well, you certainly can’t help that,” she said. “Why were you kissing Hunter to pip with him?”

“He kissed me to throw off a tail.”

“Alright. Weird choice, but I get it,” she said. “You did look very hot in that suit.”

“Don’t flatter me when I did something bad, Jemma.”

She stood and rounded the bar to climb into his lap and hug him.

“Fitz, you didn’t do something  _ bad _ . You have another soulmate. That’s so rare, you should absolutely kiss him if you want to.”

“And you’d be okay with that?”

She nodded, and kissed him on the forehead. Jemma was all about physical affection, and she always had been. It had become a comfort; coming back to her and getting that kiss on the forehead or the cheek grounded him.

“I’m also very curious to see if I would pip with him myself,” she said, fussing over Fitz’s collar the way she always did. “If you’re perfect for me, and he’s perfect for you –”

“Jemma, are you trying to apply transitive properties to our soulmate relationship?”

“Maybe. It makes sense, doesn’t it?”

“Or is it that  _ you  _ want to kiss Hunter too?”

“I mean, that’s certainly part of it. He’s quite attractive, isn’t he? How was it? Kissing him, obviously.”

“ _ So _ __ fucking good, Jem. He’s such a good kisser.”

She laughed and kissed him, and it was just as good. 

He remembered the way Hunter’s eyes lit up with delight when Fitz approached him with the idea. 

“Your girlfriend wants to kiss me,” Hunter said, “to see if we, by the smallest chance, pip a third time.”

“Hers would only be second, but yeah, that’s what she wants.”

“Do  _ you  _ want that?” Hunter asked.

“I want you to be happy,” Fitz replied, “and I want her to be happy. So, yeah, I do.”

“I’ll do it,” Hunter said, and kissed Fitz again just to catch those galaxies again. 

Hunter followed Fitz to the rooms he and Jemma took in the base, and Fitz remembered exactly Jemma’s face did when Hunter kissed her, because that was the face that Fitz’s soul made the first time, too.

“Holy shit,” Fitz murmured, hand coming up to cover his mouth. You couldn’t see the stars when someone else pipped, the sparkling unique to each pair, unique and private, but he didn’t have to. He knew Jemma well enough to know that the way she dragged Hunter into her space further was a pip.

When they parted, Jemma was staring at Hunter, wide-eyed, and breathing heavy. 

“This is a statistical anomaly,” she said into his next exhale, “but holy shit, is it a good one.”

He remembered the way Hunter fit into their lives so well after that, wrapping himself around them at night and kissing them both equally on his way out of their room. The bed was a little cramped, but it felt good, their warmth up against him. 

“I love you,” Hunter said, kissing Fitz’s shoulder as he climbed into the bed to snuggle behind Fitz. “Jem, come here so I can kiss you and tell you I love you.”

“You’re ridiculous,” she said, leaning over Fitz to kiss him. “I love you, too.”

“It’s time for bed,” Fitz said.

“I love you,” Hunter said pointedly. “I love you, Leopold.”

“I love you, too. It’s time for bed.”

Hunter pulled him into his arms and molded himself along Fitz’s back. 

“Lance,” Fitz said as Hunter shifted his hips specifically against Fitz’s bum. “Bed.”

“Yes, yes, sleep. Bed. I get it. Let me enjoy this. I got shot at today.”

Fitz brought Hunter’s hand up to his mouth and kissed his knuckles. 

“I did not like that, but I’m so grateful you came home to us.”

“Always will, love. Might take me some time, but I will always come home.”

* * *

They were both there. They were both with him. How had that changed?

Jemma’s soft skin. Hunter’s beard along his neck as they lay in bed. Their laughs. Eating dinner with them. A life together.

Dinner. The diner. They’d just saved the world, again, and then. And then, they were eating dinner. At the diner. But Hunter hadn’t been there. He hadn’t seen Hunter in so long. Where had Hunter been? Why hadn’t he come home yet?

But he had been there after, after the prison, in the prison, in the van, in the Lighthouse.

“I love you.”

“I know.”

There was still something missing, though. Some _ one _ . Blonde hair. Long legs. A gentle laugh. 

Bobbi. They hadn’t said goodbye. He might never get to say goodbye. He should have said goodbye.


	3. Bobbi

Bobbi Morse, with her sheet of blonde hair, and her big blue eyes. She’d been gone for so long. Gone, and he couldn’t remember where. Where was he, then? Where was she, and why weren’t they together? Bobbi, Hunter. They’d left. They hadn’t said goodbye. They’d toasted them from across the bar. 

Why?

Where did they go? Why would they leave where Fitz couldn’t follow? 

The diner. Jemma was gone. The prison. The van. Hunter’s lips on his neck. The quiet murmuring as they undressed each other for the first time all over again. The Lighthouse. 

Then... then? 

* * *

He remembered the way Hunter had frozen, back stiff, as Bobbi Morse stepped off a Quinjet, fresh from a mission. 

“You know how I mentioned I’d  pipped before you?” he asked quickly.

“Yeah,” Fitz said, sliding his hand along Hunter’s lower back to comfort him. He wasn’t used to Hunter like this, and it worried him. He didn’t like it. 

“Well, that’s her. The hell beast.”

“Her?” Jemma asked, leaning into Hunter’s other side, protective brackets on either side of him so he knew he wasn’t alone. “Bobbi Morse is your other soulmate?  _ The _ Bobbi Morse?”

“And ex-wife,” Fitz added. 

The problem with this was that the second she stepped into their  lives, Fitz  _ knew _ . He hadn’t even believed in the soulmate thing when this whole thing started, so he hadn’t expected it with Jemma. With Hunter, he hadn’t believed he were that lucky until it was happening. But with Bobbi, he knew what it felt like to match with someone now. He knew what the soulmate feeling was, what he’d called the forever feeling. Bobbi made that bloom in his chest, just as it had twice before. She made him laugh, and had the prettiest smile. She was intelligent, and she knew it, and she could keep up with Fitz and Jemma in the lab. 

Hunter tried to put up a strong front, tried to pretend like he fervently hated Bobbi, but Fitz was learning his tells. Whenever Bobbi flashed that smile at him, Hunter buckled a little, and then he quickly corrected, putting on a façade that he wasn’t affected. 

“I think,” he said in their rooms one night, “I think I could probably pip with Bobbi, too.”

Hunter narrowed his eyes at him.

“I know that you’re full of love, Leo, but you don’t know Bobbi.”

Fitz shrugged, struggling to unbutton his shirt, fingers trembling so he couldn't do the delicate work needed. Hunter noticed, though, as he always noticed, eyes watching Fitz so carefully, and stepped up to him, putting his hands over Fitz’s.

“May I?” Hunter asked first. Fitz nodded, and slowly, Hunter undid each button and pushed the shirt off his shoulders.

“Actually,” Simmons added after a moment had passed, “I think I could, too.” 

“Okay,” Hunter said, sighing in defeat. “I’m not going anywhere near her, but if you think you’d like to try, I am not going to stop you.”

Fitz pulled him in and kissed him.

“We’ll keep coming back home to you,” Fitz said, “same as we always have. No matter what happens. I know Bobbi hurt you before, and I’m sure you hurt her, too. But we’ll be here, no matter what happens between us, between you and her, between us and her.”

“Thank you,” Hunter said, resting his forehead against Fitz’s.

Sure enough, though, Fitz had been right. After a particularly hard day of physical training for Fitz, Bobbi walking him through it, pushing him further even when it hurt, it just happened. They were sitting on the ground, Fitz soaked in sweat and aggravation, and then they were kissing. She tugged him closer, shifting into his lap, legs thrown over his. He didn’t have to see the galaxies to know they were there, feeling the way it settled in their chests. But he still tipped her chin up so he could see them. 

“So,” she said, sliding her fingers in between Fitz’s. “I heard that you have pipped before.”

“I have,” he said, bringing her hand up to his mouth and kissing her fingers, “first with Jemma when I was a teenager, and with Hunter.”

“How do you feel about three soulmates, then?”

“It’s a statistical anomaly,” Fitz said, quoting Jemma, “but holy shit, is it a good one.”

He took her hand and towed her to their rooms, where Hunter was stretched out on their shared bed, Jemma leaning into him while she tapped through a tablet. 

“Hello,” Jemma said cheerily. “What’s this?”

Hunter frowned, and Fitz didn’t want to watch him close off.

“Thought I’d tell you myself, with Bobbi here, that we officially pipped.”

“Oh! Wonderful!” Jemma said, sitting up and leaning towards them. “How was it?”

“Jemma,” Hunter started like a warning. Fitz laughed, waving his concern off easily.

“She asked me that when I pipped with you, too. The answer is the same as it was then.”

Hunter looked at Bobbi, and said, “don’t fucking hurt him, Barbara.”

She rolled her eyes, but Fitz didn’t miss the tug at the corner of her lips. He wasn’t sure what that meant, yet; he didn’t know her the way he knew Jemma, the way he knew Hunter. He’d learn, though. 

Bobbi and Jemma had their own private moment a few days later, and Jemma was floating around for a couple days after, sighing and grinning. 

“What’s this about?” Skye asked, gesturing to the permanent smile on Jemma’s face.

“She kissed Bobbi,” Fitz said without looking up. “Pipped with her.”

“Jesus, you guys are like soulmate rabbits, banging out pips left and right. Should we kiss? See if we pip?” 

Fitz laughed, and shook his head. 

“I’m good,” he said.

“Your loss,” she replied, and flipped her hair as she left the lab.

Much to Hunter’s careful chagrin at first, and then utter delight as he and Bobbi talked, and worked through their hurt, and he fell back in love with her all over again, Bobbi became a part of their lives. They fit together so well. It was unbelievable, but being with them was so good and bright and honest. 

* * *

But then, then, they were gone. They’d burned hot, and bright, and loving, and then, they were gone. Fitz and Jemma walked into the bar.

He remembered that.

They walked in and they said goodbye. No, they didn’t speak. They raised their glasses, and Fitz couldn’t take his eyes off of them, but he could go up to them. They were sacrificing themselves to save SHIELD, to keep SHIELD safe, and – they were gone, it didn’t matter why.

Jemma had cried in Fitz’s arms after, and Fitz had held her close. There were pieces of them missing now that they couldn’t fill, but Fitz was determined to at least hold her close enough that it didn’t as bad. That’s all he could do. Minimize the pain they felt radiating, phantoms where they once had limbs. 

They’d been through so much together, and he remembered losing himself over and over, easier and easier each time with their pieces missing. Unsteady on his own two feet, another life living inside his head. 

He woke up from a nightmare, and Jemma soothed him. 

They soothed each other, and together they made it through each day, hoping that someday, Hunter and Bobbi would come back home. 

He’d gone into the stasis chamber in order to get to the future, to 2091 where the team had been taken. Hunter had rescued him from prison, decoding his messages and coming to his rescue. 

“Love,” Hunter said in the van, finally free from the prison. He pulled it over to the side of the road, flicked on his four ways, and put the van in park. “It has literally been years since I've seen your gorgeous face, and I haven’t gotten to kiss you yet.”

“A travesty, really,” Fitz agreed, and Hunter unbuckled his seat belt to climb across the center console into Fitz’s lap. His mouth was on his, and it was as if no time had passed between him. The hole in his chest that burned every night without him cooled, and the rest of him warmed, remembering what it was like to kiss, and touch, and hold his soulmate. One of them, at least. He ached to hold them all again. 

Someday, no matter how many days he had to wait, he would hold them all again. 

“I’ll tell Bobbi you’re alright,” Hunter said the night before Fitz was due to set off. “Although, she might murder me for letting you do this.”

“Why’d you come alone?”

“Because she’d murder us both for this,” he replied. “She wouldn’t let you go. I shouldn’t be letting you go, either.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“I know. You’ve grown so much since we met, Fitz, and you’re so capable. It’s hard to believe this confident, skilled man is the same flustered kid I pipped with.”

“It’s the trauma,” Fitz said. 

“You’ve survived so much, Fitz. If you ever wanted to retire, we’d come with you. Start that life together.”

“I would love that. When we’re done, I’m coming home straight to you.”

Hunter ran his hand over Fitz’s sides and up his back, memorizing him all over again for their next time apart. 

The last thing he remembered was Hunter standing off to the side as they set up the chamber for him.

“You’re going to come out of this, right? You’re not going to freeze yourself and never thaw?”

“It’s perfectly safe. And I’ll have Enoch watching over me to make sure I get to 2091.”

“Fitz,” Hunter said, voice small for once. “You’re going to be so cold. You hate being cold.”

Fitz kissed him on the forehead. 

“I’ll come home to you, I’ll bring Jemma back to you, and you, me, Bobbi, Jemma, we’ll be okay. We’ll be together, and we’ll be home. I can be a little cold if it means I’ll get to overheat in our bed again.”

Hunter nodded, and then, they put him in the chamber. The door shut between them. 

“I love you.”

“I know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is a bit of a weird one, but I hope you liked it! I wanted to do something more, something better with this idea. I love the scis and the spies, you know???  
> Anyway, let me know what you think! <3
> 
> -k

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a part of my 30 Day Fic Prompt and decided I want to expand it a little, so here's a three chapter fic about how Fitz falls in love with each of the Scis and Spies!   
> If you want to come talk to me, hit me up on [tumblr.](kaytikazoo.tumblr.com)
> 
> Also, check out the [30 Day Fic Prompt Masterpost](https://kaytikazoo.tumblr.com/post/621923351453106176/30-day-fic-prompt-masterlist) and hit me up if you want any of them expanded!
> 
> -k


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